Ray Davies is a Musical Genius -
A Tunesmith of the First Degree

	I was aware of the Kinks during their hitmaking days of the sixties just like any other highschooler - by hearing them on top forty radio. It wasn't 'til I got to college, and met some people with sophisticated tastes that I discovered that the Kinks, along with the Who and the Yardbirds, were three of the most important musical groups in the world.
After Ray Davies amazed me at Princeton University at his 'Storyteller' show - I rushed out to get this cd called To The Bone. It is a combination of songs recorded in a 1993 Kinks tour, and songs done acoustically in a studio, with the original intent to be to record videos for posterity. It is an amazing recording because it shows this group at an advanced stage of their career having lost none - in fact probably gaining in their musical skills. I don't even need to hear the original versions of these songs anymore - and the two new tracks are great songs as well. To The Bone, The Kinks, Guardian Records 37303		It was a good time for that discovery, since many of their albums were cutouts at that time, and I got albums such as Sunny Afternoon, Face to Face, Kinks Size and others for $1.99 or $2.99. I bought Lola vs the Powerman when it came out, also Muswell Hillbillies and Schoolboys in Disgrace, but then somehow I got it into my head that they were old and not capable of creating good music anymore. Even Celluloid Heroes didn't change that. I became a convert to Tom Petty, Elvis Costello and the Police. It's only years later, after seeing Ray Davies in a solo show, that I realize that they are still truly great, and that great rock and roll can be created by old timers as well. I guess we are all finding that out.  Click on next or Arthur for the inspiration to this page